:: crapweasel ::
the official blog of
Dave Tompkins

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Amusingly, to prepare us for final exams we got sent the UBC Bomb Threat Procedure. A student who is upset about a (non-credible) bomb threat can leave the exam if they wish and they will be treated as if they left due to illness. Also, if the room is evacuated for a (credible) bomb threat I have to make sure that everyone leaves their exams on their desks, which means I have to be the last one to leave, which means I'm the most expendable. Students: Read this before you get any crazy ideas.

For the past week or so, We've had a "Boil Water Advisory" in Vancouver where we had to boil our drinking water. Sure, it was a pain in the ass and some people went crazy, but both me and my research lab were well stocked with bottled water so I wasn't affected too much. But then at about 1am last night (I was actually working on my computer at the time) UBC and the surrounding area (including my apartment) lost all power -- and it wasn't back on until late yesterday afternoon. Maybe I'm just a geek but I found it way worse than the boil water advisory, and with the two of them together I had to laugh about being plunged into the dark ages (literally and figuratively). For the record, aside from starting a fire it's hard to boil water without electricity... I mused that if I absolutely had to I could have hooked up a kettle to my car battery via a power inverter I have. So I spent a day in my increasingly cold apartment looking for something to do besides worrying that the food in my well stocked fridge / freezer would go bad. I tried reading by sun/candlelight, but instead I ended up completely reorganizing my closet space. I disposed of a ton of stuff and donated three garbage bags full of clothes to the Salvation Army.

I just heard about Global Orgasm Day:

The mission of the Global Orgasm is to effect change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy...

...The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.

I just want to point out that it's a lot easier to look the other way when fake pseudo-science is used for harmless good instead of evil.

Thanks to everyone who wished me well at the BC Poker Championship Pot Limit event. I ended up finishing 31st out of 434 people, which paid out $1,955 -- not bad considering I got in on a $120 satellite. However, 1st place was a cool $130,000 -- so it's hard not to be a little disappointed. Considering the cards I was dealt I don't think I could have done much better -- I can't think of any significant mistakes I made and the few calculated risks I took paid off. On my final hand that I busted out on I was a 73% favourite to win with AcKh against Kc9c, but the guy hit a nine -- and that's poker. Overall, it was a good experience... it started at noon, and I finished around 9:45 p.m. -- one thing I did not expect was that it included a free trip to the buffet for dinner -- which was really quite nice.

So today in my tutorial, the students asked how I did when I took the course (someone guessed 99%) and I was explaining that I never took the course because I did my undergrad somewhere else (someone guessed Harvard) -- I took it at The University of Western Ontario. So then one of the students went on about how he loves this blog -- Overheard @ Western. It's got some funny stuff.

This may be old news, but not as old as you might think. This totally awesome CD didn't come out 20 years ago -- it was released last month. The Oh Come All Ye Faithful song is sooo good.

For the record, the Twelve Days Of (Heavy Metal) Christmas are:
12. Silver Crosses
11. Black Mascaras
10. Pairs of Platforms
9. Tattered T-Shirts
8. Pentagrams
7. Leather Jackets
6. Cans of Hairspray
5. Skull Earrings
4. Quarts of Jack
3. Studded Belts
2. Pairs of Spandex Pants
1. A Tattoo of Ozzy

On last night's How I Met Your Mother Barney plays a crazy gambling game called Xing Hai Shi Bu Xing (spelling source: Barney's Blog). As of this posting, a Google Search returns NO matches. I'm curious to see how many matches there will be in the future (besides this post :)

This is a geeky test post you should ignore. I migrated my blog over to Google Blogger and the transition hasn't been perfect -- there are some behind-the-scenes things going on that I'm not very happy with. On the plus side, it looks like the RSS feeds and things like the facebook auto-feed are working better. I've also decided to start adding a Title to each of my blog entries (see above) which required a bit of a formatting change to the blog. I've been avoiding titles, but so many people use RSS feeds and now the google blogger is "auto-titling" each entry which looks kinda lame -- so I'm better off entering my own title.

A popular question from friends (especially people who haven't seen me in a while) is how the DVD collection is going, and if I'm getting Blu-Ray or HD-DVDs. The DVD consumption is definitely much lower... in fact, when I hit 800 movies I plotted my movie purchases by month (below) and you can see that I'm definitely getting fewer and fewer movies. Now, I just worry about new releases and the occasional back catalogue movie. As for the Hi-Def debate, the thing you have to remember is that my TV (which is still great and I love it very much) is now 6.5 years old and is only regular DVD resolution (480p) -- so when Future Dave finally graduates and gets a job and a new TV and equipment, well then Future Dave will worry about Hi-Def.

Earlier this morning (last night) I entered a single table satellite and won my way into the Pot Limit Event at the BC Poker Championships. The tournament entry fee is $1,100 ($1,000 to the prize pool + $100 to the casino) but I got in for just $120. The way this particular satellite works is: ten people each put in $120 ($110 + $10 to the casino) and then they play a tournament until it's last man standing -- who then gets a 10x$110 = $1,100 entry into the tournament. After almost 2 hours, I was the last man standing. Woo hoo. I'll be playing on November 21st so wish me luck.

I had a great time in Whistler this weekend for the big Scorpio bash. I'd tell you more but as you know... what happens in Whistler stays in Whistler. But seriously, as a single guy I have nothing to hide. Ask me for some stories.

My post-birthday entry from last year:

Well, another birthday has come and gone... I didn't really get a real good quote or 'zinger' this year... at least none of the calibre of years gone past... but last night I did make out with a female ghostbuster (so can cross that off my life TODO list)

Well, my birthday this year was pretty much a carbon copy of last year -- I even managed to find the exact same ghostbuster girl that I made out with last year and made out with her again.

Actually, this year was a bit more sedated because I've been really sick for the past 3 weeks. "Too sick to even blog" as my one friend pointed out. Apparently so.